page_title: History of Tunisia
section_title: First peoples
hierarchical_section_title: History of Tunisia / Early history / First peoples
context_page_description: The present day Republic of Tunisia, al-Jumhuriyyah at-Tunisiyyah, is situated in Northern Africa. Geographically situated between Libya to the east, Algeria to the west and the Mediterranean Sea to the north. Tunis is the capital and the largest city; it is near the ancient site of the city of Carthage.
  Throughout its recorded history, the physical features and environment of the land of Tunisia have remained fairly constant, although during ancient times more abundant forests grew in the north, and earlier in prehistory the Sahara to the south was not an arid desert.
  The weather is temperate in the north, which enjoys a Mediterranean climate with mild rainy winters and hot dry summers, the terrain being wooded and fertile. The Medjerda river valley is currently valuable farmland. Along the eastern coast the central plains enjoy a moderate climate with less rainfall but significant precipitation in the form of heavy dews; these coastlands are currently used for orchards and grazing. Near the mountainous Algerian border rises Jebel ech Chambi, the highest point in the country at 1544 meters. In the near south, a belt of salt lakes running east–west cuts across the country.
context_section_description: Stone age tools dating from the Middle Stone Age (around 200,000 years ago) found near Kelibia are the earliest evidence of human activity in the region. Finds have been made of stone blades, tools, and small figurines of the Capsian culture (named after Gafsa in Tunisia), which lasted from around 10,000 to 6,000 BC (the Mesolithic period). Seasonal migration routes evidence their ancient journeys. Saharan rock art, consisting of inscriptions and paintings that show design patterns as well as figures of animals and of humans, are attributed to the Berbers and also to black Africans from the south. Dating these outdoor art works has proven difficult and unsatisfactory. Egyptian influence is thought very unlikely. Among the animals depicted, alone or in staged scenes, are large-horned buffalo (the extinct bubalus antiquus), elephants, donkeys, colts, rams, herds of cattle, a lion and lioness with three cubs, leopards or cheetahs, hogs, jackals, rhinoceroses, giraffes, hippopotamus, a hunting dog, and various antelope. Human hunters may wear animal masks and carry their weapons. Herders are shown with elaborate head ornamentation; a few other human figures are shown dancing, while others are driving chariots or riding camels.
  By five thousand years ago, a neolithic culture was evolving among the sedentary proto-Berbers of the Maghrib in northwest Africa, characterized by the practice of agriculture and animal domestication, as well as the making of pottery and finely chipped stone arrowheads. They planted wheat, barley, beans and chick peas in their fields, and used ceramic bowls and basins, goblets, plates, and large cooking dishes daily. These were stored by hanging on the walls of their domiciles. Archaeological evidence shows these proto-Berbers were already "farmers with a strong pastoral element in their economy and fairly elaborate cemeteries," well over a thousand years before the Phoenicians arrived to found Carthage. Individual wealth was measured among the nomadic herders of the south by the number of sheep, goats, and cattle a man possessed. Finds of scraps of cloth woven in stripes of different colors indicate that these groups wove fabrics.
  The religion of the ancient Berbers is undocumented and only funerary rites can be reconstructed from archaeological evidence. Burial sites provide an early indication of religious beliefs; almost sixty thousand tombs are located in the Fezzan alone, according to the Italian scholar Giacomo Caputo. A more recent tomb, the Medracen in eastern Algeria, still stands. Built for a Berber king and traditionally assigned to Masinissa (r. 202–149 BC), it may have belonged instead to his father Gala (or Gaia). The architecture of the elegant tower tomb of his contemporary Syphax shows Greek or Punic influence. Most other information about Berber religious beliefs comes from later, classical times. The Libyans believed that divine power showed itself in the natural world, and could, for example, inhabit bodies of water or reside in stones, which were objects of worship. Procreative power was symbolized by the bull, the lion, and the ram. Among the proto-Berbers in the area that is now Tunisia, images of fish, often found in mosaics excavated there, were phallic symbols that fended off the evil eye, while sea shells signified the female sex. Herodotus mentions that Libyans of the Nasamone tribe slept on the graves of their ancestors in order to induce dreams for divination. Libyans sacrificed to the sun and to the moon (Ayyur). Eventually supernatural entities became personalized as gods, perhaps influenced by Egyptian or Punic practice; yet the Berbers seemed to be "drawn more to the sacred than to the gods." Often only a little more than the names of the Berber deities are known, e.g., Bonchar, a leading god. Eventually, Berbero-Libyans came to adopt elements from ancient Egyptian religion. Herodotus writes of the divine oracle sourced in the Egyptian god Ammon located among the Libyans, at the oasis of Siwa. Later, Berber beliefs influenced the religion of Carthage, the city-state 
caption: Medracen, 19 meters. Numidian, c. 3rd century B.C.[16]:127,129[18]
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